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Daily Meme: Joe the Plumber on 'Dead Kids' and His Gun

Remember Joe the Plumber? During the 2008 presidential race, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Holland, Ohio, vaulted himself into campaign history after telling then-candidate Barack Obama that his proposed tax plan would prevent him from buying a small business. During the presidential campaign debatethat followed, John McCain latched on to Wurzelbacher's comments and held up "Joe the Plumber" as the American everyman, his livelihood threatened by Obama's tax plan. When he coined the moniker, McCain inadvertently created a new GOP personality with a penchant for assault weapons.

Six years later, Joe the Plumber is still in the headlines. But he's moved way beyond protesting the president's tax plan. Following last weekend's tragic shooting rampage on the campus of the University of California-Santa Barbara, Wurzelbacher took it upon himself to pen an open letter to the victims' families, sensitively informing them that "as harsh as this sounds—your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights."

Wurzelbacher's remarks appeared to be a response to an impassioned speech by one of the victims' fathers, who told reporters that his son died because of "craven, irresponsible politicians" and the NRA. "They talk about gun rights," he said. "What about Chris's right to live?"

But this is far from the last time that Wurzelbacher's big mouth has gotten him in hot water. McCain may have regretted elevating Joe the Plumber to campaign-trail celebrity when, touring through Ohio, Wurzelbacher enthusiastically endorsed a supporter's claim that a vote for Obama was a vote "for the death of Israel."

Then Wurzelbacher actually went to Israel (as a reporter for a conservative company called "Pajamas Media"), declaring that he had "no agenda but the truth." During his two-week truth-telling tour, he decided that journalists had no business in war zones. "I liked back in World War I and World War II, when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for them," he said. "Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to down soldiers, our American soldiers, Israeli soldiers. I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting."